http://www.boston.com/dailynews/277/nation/Condit_opens_campaign_office_l:.shtml

Condit opens campaign office, leading to speculation about lawmaker's seat

By Jim Wasserman, Associated Press, 10/4/2001 01:44

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) Rep. Gary Condit has opened a re-election office in his California congressional district, triggering fresh speculation about the political future of the embattled lawmaker whose popularity has eroded amid scandal.

Condit, seeking an eighth term in a newly drawn district that could put him at a disadvantage, is beginning to gather the 3,000 voter signatures needed to launch a campaign bid.

Condit consultant Richard Ross, who said this week re-election is a ''real possibility,'' believes seeking the signatures is the best way to check the temperature of prospective voters.

''He believes this would give him the most accurate read on his viability,'' Ross said. ''To get 3,000 petitions you have to talk to 6,000 or 7,000 people and each conversation has to be done face to face. You get a pretty good read. They're either signing or slamming the door.''

A Condit bid could set up what many Democrats fear may be a bloody March 5 primary fight that would pit him against Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, a friend, former aide and protege.

Political consultants and some Condit supporters, however, are shaking their heads about a Condit re-election bid. He was harshly criticized for his sometimes-evasive answers during a national TV interview in August in which the lawmaker wouldn't say if he had an affair with former intern Chandra Levy, who has been missing for five months.

''I think while the world has changed a lot since Sept. 11 the world of Gary Condit hasn't,'' said Gale Kaufman, a political consultant for California Democrats. ''I think the chances are the same as the night he went on Connie Chung. No one will have forgotten anything when it comes to election time.''

Condit, a former Ceres councilman, mayor, county supervisor and state Assembly member before going to Congress in 1989, is not a suspect in the 24-year-old Levy's disappearance. But his silence about their relationship caused his popularity to falter.

Washington police said Condit admitted the relationship to them, and Levy's family said the relationship existed.

Condit is gathering voter signatures needed before the Dec. 7 filing deadline. He could skip the signatures and pay a $1,451 filing fee, equivalent to 1 percent of a congressman's salary. Condit has collected signatures in the past to qualify for past campaigns.

Aides in Condit's Modesto office referred calls Wednesday to ''our campaign office,'' where calls reached a voice recorder and messages were not returned.

If Condit runs, he'll likely face Cardoza, a three-term assemblyman, former real estate agent and part owner of a family bowling alley. On Wednesday, sources close to Cardoza said the Atwater Democrat is leaning toward running regardless of Condit's plans.

Previously, Cardoza planned to run for a state Senate seat and already raised $131,000. He declined comment Wednesday.

Highlighting awkwardness in Democratic circles, Condit's son, Chad, was one of Cardoza's chiefs of staff, and planned until recently to run for Cardoza's Assembly seat.

Initial polls show Cardoza doing well, said Sandra Lucas, chairman of the Stanislaus County Democratic Committee. ''His numbers are very good. Right now, he could beat anybody.''

Other potential candidates for Condit's seat include a 23-year-old Democratic state senator, and two Republicans a state senator and Modesto City Councilman.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001